Road Rage

Mine does. I just decided I did not want to be left out of all the fun.

So who's with me?!?!

need4spd

Actually, that was one thing that did not bother me

The side bolsters were another thing!

This was at 2 months old:




Sorry Roadrage, I know you are just venting.

Road Rage

It's cool, Need - those bolsters do look pretty sorry, but that color certainly magnifies the creases, while my Camel interior does not. Of course, the flash also emphasizes the creases - think of them as character lines, and they will become as perpetually handsome as Sean Connery's face (or so my wife tells me - time has not been as fortunate to us mere mortals).

JDM5lugHatch

DId you condition them at all before this happened?

need4spd

yes, 2nd week I got it and saw them forming, and one other time inbetween with that stuff in the brown bottle, lexyol (sp?).

Road, its ok, don't care anymore about the seats, friends thought they looked like crap, even without the flash. You are right though, black shows it the worst.

Les C

Butt prints = fine leather seating surfaces.
If you have EVER owned fine leather furniture in your home you would already know butt prints are always going to occur. Your options ???? How 'bout ripped or torn fine leather seating surfaces. So you see, butt prints GOOOOOOD, torn leather seats in your new $35K car BAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDD !!!

paultl

i have butt prints as well on my 02 tl-s.....cheap quality leather. my buddies lexus doesnt have that issue at all

05TLTony

I know it's not a great solution, but try seat covers if it bothers you that much.
They do look pretty bad. How many miles do you have on her?

youngTL

Those look not even as bad as the seats in my 1G TL, but I have a dark grey leather.

Novice

Conditioning will not help as the thin cheap leather is coated with rubber. You cannot condition rubber.

sufall96

I don't think the seats in the 04TL is bad. I had a 03 TL Type S and the seats are much better in this car. I have read reviews on the 04TL and it was stated that the TL had the best seats ever made by Acura next to the NSX. Also my wife and I went to a local auto show with lots of new cars and we sat in cars from the new chevy malibu to a $90,000 W12 Phaeton. With all that said the TL seats felt better than the $70,000 BMW 745.

PS. I don't like the butt prints or creases either but all I'm saying is I don't think Acura owners are the only ones that have this problem, or are they??????

JDM5lugHatch

Interesting this is the first I have read about that. I mentioned to the Acura R&D person when he called to address some concerns I had that the leather on the headrests felt like pleather to me and he just kinda went silent on that one.

I must say that the leather seating surfaces in Toyota and Lexus vehicles are far superior to most of the other car manufacturers out there. A friend of mine has a '93 supra and he has never conditioned his leather yet they still look new.

Oh well I do like my TL though and I am now glad that I have the quartz interior.

Novice

I have a seat cover with me (my dealer left in the back seat-aren't they nice?). One night, I cut a section of the cover-it is rubber on the top-real leather (or if you can call that leather) is underneath the rubber.

I just like the way my TL drives. After all the damages I got from this a-hole dealer, the mechanics of my TL is all it matters to me.

Lore

Interesting... rubber. And they boast that all areas that come into contact with the person is leather. Maybe the bad creasing is a result of the rubber wearing off?

neuronbob

I've got butt prints too. need4spd, those are the worst seats I've seen. I mean, DAM. I've had my car for over a year and my bolsters don't look like that.

Novice

Here is the proof. I know I am crazy, but I am a researcher with a Ph.D. (need to instigate). I cut out a section of so called "leather". Those who compare this to find Italian leather couch are making no sense. The first layer is pure rubber (20% of total thickness), then something leatherish (20%) and finally compressed hairy or cloth material (60%). Condition all you want. You might as well put some vinyl cleaner for better results.

Novice

Oh, by the way, do you know why we get butt prints in the middle of the perforated section? Because the leather section is even thinner there. It is due to stretching of the top rubber coat.

Lore: The section of the seat cover right by the seat belt bucke is just a pure rubber layer-no leatherish material underneath the rubber layer.

A-TLvic882

I gess me?


Driver



Passenger

Novice

Hey, no butt print on the passenger side! How come?

need4spd

Bob, yep, and that photo was a year ago, think about it.

Sorry to keep posting this issue, but Roadrage drove me to it.

MrGQDieselNY

Yup yup, same here, 2 month old car, the butt prints I can deal with, the side creases are just gross!

Joe5.0

My 03 CL-S6 has the drivers side buttprint, while the passengers doesnt. Thats because I rarely have a passneger with me.

My side bolsters are NOWHERE near as cracked as the pics posted so far tho. I think you guys need to condition them a ton better, because I've only used Meg's leather wipes, and more recently Lexol cleaner/conditioner, and they look pretty good. The rears look better than new, and I only have a couple stretch marks on the drivers bolsters, but nothing like in these pics.

A-TLvic882

Not to many butts rides on the passenger side.

HondaOnly

My TL left a seat print on my butt. Whenever I get out of my TL, my butt looks flat and perforated.

I'm trying to have a sense of humor about this, but it's not easy. This is the third car I've had with leather. My brother has had two cars with leather. My parents have had 7 cars with leather. Of these 12 cars, 6 of which were Honda/Acura products, only my 04 TL has had the butt print problem. I don't care if other brands have this problem. The bottom line is that there are cars out there that never have this problem. Making a butt-print proof leather seat should not be rocket science. If someone's done it, Acura should go find out how they did it.

rets

RR, thanks for your thread to bring up so many ugly creases pics... I'm happy my seats only have butt prints without other serious damange...



need4spd, I know you since 3G TL starts its era, but I never knew this...

need4spd

Rets, really?

Well I hope acura fixed that part of the seat. like I said, I am ok with the butt prints, but to each their own as some are not, kind of like the vibration thing?

A-TLvic882

jk HAHAHAHAHAHA

JetJock

Yesterday I happened to be at a Chevrolet dealer and looked at a brand new Corvette in the showroom. It had red leather seats with perforated sections similar to our TL's seat. While the seat didn't have buttprints in the perforated section yet, the side bolsters already had creases on the driver side facing the door apparently from people getting in and out of the car in the showroom. One crease was very obvious, and had a line of dirt surrounding the crease in the leather which was "indented" or creased. Inside the crease, the leather was wrinkled and maintained the original color of the leather, surrounding the crease, the leather was dirty and had a color stain similar to the blue jean dye color. It just goes to show that leather is going to wrinkle and crease and there really isn't much that can be done to prevent it. As for the buttprints, Acura screwed up the design of the seat in the '04 TL by only putting one seam in the cushion, thus allowing a larger area of leather to be subject to stretching and the resulting buttprints. This issue is getting really frustrating for many including myself, and I wish Acura would recall the '04 seats and swap them out for the '05 design and make everyone happy. Other than the buttprints, my car is perfect.

matelot

i thought you don't wanna talk about it ???

mporter410

I have "butt prints" on my driver seat, just not a fixation on them

kosh2258

butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt ,butt...

Hey, I'd rather start a rant about the '04 driver and passenger seat belts that have the buckle stop placed too low so that they get wedged between the seat and B-pillar trim and scratch the beejeezus out of the B-pillar trim when you try to pull them out and they're also hard to reach when they're down there so that you have reach way around to get at them and Acura must realize it was a problem because I understand that they changed the belt stop in the '05 so that the buckles don't hang down so low and don't get wedged between the seat and the B-pillar trim, that's a pain in the butt too!

wstevens

G. Gordon Liddy had a party trick that he would often show off: he would hold his hand over a lit candle. As the flesh on his palm started to burn, he would just stand motionless.

When asked what the trick was, he replied, "The trick is.....not to care."


This is the attitude I try to use with my butt-imprinted front seats.

Crazy88

whats the big deal bout the prints? when ur driving a car your sitting on a seat, so you cant see them when your driving

haighworld

I'd be annoyed about the butt prints...if the seats weren't so damn comfortable!

I much prefer the softer leather and can deal with the stretching.

Road Rage

It is amazing that so many of you in this thread cannot understand the sarcasm of my original post.

I don't wanna talk about it! - the fact that this thread has another 40 posts indicates just how sick and sarcasm-deserved this issue has become.

All auto leather is treated - there are a variety of materials used, but it is inaccurate to state that they cannot be treated or conditioned. It amazes me how people can take some true info (leather is often topcoated) and then make an inference that is completely wrong.

I suggest getting the facts from this company, well-known leader in leather for aircraft, marine, and automobiles. Their conditioning products can treat any leather, and they can repair or send you to companies locally who can repair the leather topcoats used.

http://www.townsendleather.com/

Here is an example from another outfit:

http://www.leatherrepairkits.com/See...ir_is_done.htm

Road Rage

If you believe even 1/2 of Liddy's claims, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that is available for immediate sale! But I do agree with you - here is the amount of thought I give to the seat each time I place my well-padded tail into it: Millisecond. Okay, that's it!

Now on to Liddy:
He ate a rat. He climbed into a tree in an electrical storm to overcome his fear of electricity. Righhhtttt........................

The man is a felon, former intelligence agent, and a burglar - not high on my list of truth tellers in the world - right up there with OJ Simpson, and yes, my beloved Barry Bonds, it now appears. Flaxseed oil...righhttttttt..........

Xpditor

I was watching a motorcycle program on the Speed channel a few weeks ago and they had the owner of the Corbin Saddle Co. on who talked about their latest products and advancements.

He showed their premium saddle and explained that they now use a closed cell, forming foam and pliant high-grade Italian leather so that the saddle would take the shape of the person's butt over time. He said that it breaks in like a new baseball mit. He was very proud of this new technology.

He didn't, however, refer to them as butt-prints.

I don't think Wilson is getting any complaints that their baseball gloves have changed shape and texture from when they were new.

Do you want a seat to look at or to be comfortable sitting in?

mxtt

Then don't read any posts that start with "Butt....". This is a free country, right? This is a forum we can discuss our cars, right?

PoochaKannInc

I'm so glad you wrote this post to explain. I was in the middle of PM'ing you and asking if you were joking...

I was going to tell my favorite oil expert that we already fifteen threads on this topic!

Btw, I have buttprints too.

snax

To quote Mr. Miyagi, "you must focus power Danielson".
This needs to be a snowball that gains momentum.
Last week I went to my dealer and ask them to look at, diagnose and fix the seat. They agreed that it was not 'wearing' properly and suggested I wait until I was further along in my warranty and they will repair or replace the seat. I had them document all in the computer and they said each time I am there for service they will check and note in my service record. Just document and keep track of how many times you tell dealer to check and repair and eventually something should be done.